[BleachITP] Episode 4: Carcharadon vs Koujin; Crystalline Conflict Continues!

[H. Zee]

Koujin smiles. "Hey, shark man, did you know that I've never actually used my final release during real combat? Also, whenever I slice you-" He procedes to practically flow under a backhand swing of Carcharadon's hammer, and leave a long slice up his thigh and across his hip. "-I leave tiny pieces of crystal that feed off of your reitsu. The stronger it is, the bigger and faster they grow." He slides to a low fighting stance, then proceeds to jump up and over Carcharadon. He slices off the end of Carcharadon's claw as it painfully slowly reaches up at him, and then creates a long cut down the shark's back. "Pretty soon here, you're going to find it hard to move." He takes a few steps back, looking at the hulking form of his opponent curiously. "Er...harder. I keep forgetting that other people aren't used to fighting under this level of spirit pressure." He resumes his ready stance.

Carcharadon snarls, and his movements actually speed up slightly as he drifts towards Koujin like a glacier.

Will. Not. Be. Beaten. Shinigami.

His wounds are healing almost instantly, but they leave jagged rows of crystal still lodged in the scar tissue.

[MageSparrowhawk]

Koujin raises his eyebrow at his opponent's increased movement speed, smirks and imitates his speech style. "Are. Currently. Being. Beaten. Espada." He blows a raspberry at him then rushes forward, one blade on an intercept course with Carcharadon's chest, the other seeking to trap his hammer.

[H. Zee]

There is a moment of confusion as Carcharadon takes time to register Koujin's joke. Thinking: Why is the Shinigami talking like th- Oh. OH.

His face twists into sudden rage and hatred, and he slowly drifts towards Koujin, arms outstretched. Koujin's blade traps his hammer against the ground and the other stabs deep into his chest.

With a roar of effort, Carcharadon speeds up almost to normal speed, grabbing the blade in his chest with his pincer. With the other arm, he heaves his hammer up into the air, knocking away Koujin's sword, and tries to sweep the hammer at Koujin's legs.

[MageSparrowhawk]

Koujin's eyes widen in surprise as he suddenly looses his main-hand sword, which goes flying into the air. As the hammer swings for his feet, he jumps over it, then grabs his remaining sword in two hands. "You shouldn't grab sharp things..." With a mighty swing, Koujin slices right out Carcharadon's side, cutting the top half of his pincer off. He spins once, hops up a few feet, then kicks off his opponent's chest. landing a short distance away, he rolls to a standing position, holds up his right hand, and catches the falling blade.

[H. Zee]

All that remains of Carcharadon's pincer is a single half, a lonely white arc of a blade. The massive wound in his body heals once more, but he is growing more and more covered in jagged crystal, which is slowly but surely growing in size as it feeds on his reiatsu.

As a last-ditch effort, Carcharadon opens his jaws, and once more his eel-like tongue slithers out and opens its own mouth.

There is a ground-shaking roar as an immense white Cero spins into existence in the thing's mouth, and then it is fired, an enormous, blazing ball of white energy so bright that everything in the vicinity is cast into stark silhouette.

[MageSparrowhawk]

C*** too close to use barrier...Let's hope this works... Koujin jams his off-hand sword into the ground next to him, and holds the other in both hands. as the Cero roars toward him, Koujin focuses as much of his reitsu to the edge of the blade, then swings.

There is a blast of white light, then the cero is parted evenly in the middle, becoming two half-cylinders that char off into the distance. Whew...wait..what? Koujin is momentarily caught off guard as he sees small whirls of white reitsu trapped in the edge of his blade. He frowns. Erm...Right. I'll figure it out later. In the back of his head, Suishou no ha is snickering.

Koujin dashes forward, then dives between Carcharadon's legs, dragging his swords through sand, flesh, then sand again. He rolls to a standing position, then lets loose with a flurry of slashes. Once Carcharadon's back looks like a porcupine, Koujin jumps back then repressurizes the area. "One last thing. My crystals don't have to be in you to grow." Suddenly, a massive faceted crystal grows out of the ground where he just slid, securely attaching his opponent to the ground.

"ALL SHINIGAMI! THIS IS CAPTAIN SATOSHI! I ORDER A FULL FIGHTING WITHDRAWAL NOW! I WANT YOU ALL AT THIS PORTAL YESTERDAY! NO QUESTIONS! REPEAT, WITHDRAW TO PORTAL NOW! FIGHTING RETREAT!"

"Well dang...I guess I have to go now..." Koujin stays at a slight distance from his opponent, swords on his shoulders.

[H. Zee]

Carcharadon's eyes roll in their sockets, looking towards Koujin. He grunts as he struggles against the crystal holding him.

Koujin moves forward, readying his swords for a final blow down on Carcharadon's head and neck.

DAMMIT! shouts Carcharadon, his powerful jaws slamming open, sending splinters of broken crystal in all directions as his jaws break free of the encrusted crystal around them. Carcharadon's eel-like tongue arches from his mouth and bites deeply into Koujin's shoulder, its tiny shark-like teeth grinding against bone.

[MageSparrowhawk]

"Ow! Hey!" Koujin jumps back, and resets his guard. The small wound quickly began closing shut from crystals growing in the wound. "Sorry, I can't let you go now, but I do have to leave." He shunpo's away. A tiny drip of blood flicks off the end of one of the gems repairing his shoulder. It doesn't follow his flash step though.

It slowly arcs through the air. Forming into a tiny sphere, it sails over Carcharadon's back, and lands squarely on the crystal over his eyes. The transparent crystal

*splat*

[H. Zee]

The blood trickles down the crystal, and Carcharadon's eyes focus on it.

They both suddenly begin to glow a hellish red. His reiatsu increases to the point that now Koujin might be the one having trouble.

With a roar which collapses the walls of buildings, Carcharadon rears up into the air, arms spread wide, effortlessly shattering his crystalline prison. Jagged shards of crystal rain down over a ten-mile radius as Carcharadon breaks free.

And focuses on Koujin, gnashing his teeth in anticipation.

Suddenly he's a massive, shark-shaped projectile, streaking towards Koujin with all the speed, accuracy and lethality of an ICBM nuclear missile. As he charges, the pressure of his reiatsu carves a massive furrow in the ground he passes over.

[MageSparrowhawk]

Koujin senses the massive pressure wave coming up behind him. He spins around midair, but keeps moving as fast as he can. Carcharadon quickly catches up anyway. Uh oh... Koujin quickly builds a barrier of reishi, but laces extra into the framework. You realize that's not going to stop him, right? Yup...I have another plan.

The 'shark missile' streaks in, hammering into the barrier. Koujin jumps up and back, releasing his hold on the wall, while simultaneously curling up and forming an incredibly hard bubble immediately around him. The suddenly free reishi, in addition to the massive force that Carcharadon is creating, of course, explodes.

"WHOOO!!" Koujin, fairly safe in his bubble, goes flying. Almost... He breaks out of his shell, adjusts his flight slightly- there! -and goes sailing through the open garganta.

[H. Zee]

As Satoshi steps through and begins to close the Garganta, Koujin sails through after him. And then the Garganta closes.

Carcharadon punches the empty earth where the Garganta had been, creating a massive crater and sending cracks shivering out all over the ground in all directions.

He roars at the sky, angered by the loss of his primary prey. He roars so loudly that the stars themselves seem to shiver.

He then goes and kills and eats a huge number of random unimportant Hollows before falling asleep at the edge of Hueco Mundo.